The Becoming of a Lady
by SamDellaMente
Summary: Thirteen year-old Elle is taken in by the vampaneze and blooded against her own will, but she is soon to find out why. She will learn who to trust, who to listen to and most importantly, how to survive as a creature of the night. Prelude to "The Vampaneze Lady".
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **This is a prelude to my fanfiction, "The Vampaneze Lady".

**Disclaimer: **I do **not **own any of The Saga of Darren Shan, but I do own my own characters.

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_Slam! _The force I pulled the door closed causes it to slam quite loudly and the bark from my neighbour's dog told me that it wasn't just my parents who heard it. But I couldn't care less. I just strode forward from the front garden, jumping over the gate to get onto the path. My head was spinning, filled with all the things I wish I had told my mother and father. They wouldn't believe me if I did, so I kept it a secret. All they cared about was having the perfect little daughter. So what if my grades at school had slipped a little? If they knew only half of the story they would understand. Or maybe they wouldn't, they never do.

Usually I was a top-level student, always finishing my work, always handing in homework. I was no problem. Until the world's biggest bastard moved to my school. He shared all of my classes, there was not one hour where I was away from him at school. I didn't think anyone could stoop so low. He was threatening, self-centred, annoying and a bully. At first I just ignored whatever he said to me, idly putting anything off, but when he started to bring my loved ones into it, I cracked. It was only when I made the first strike did he start to get physical. I wished I never had to deal with him ever again.

I wasn't even paying attention to where I was walking, just heading in any direction that my feet took me. I wanted to be somewhere to no one else would be, somewhere no one dared to go. Glancing around the area, I caught sight of the forest that surrounded the edge of the town. A perfect place to go. No one ever went too deep in because of the old myth. People used to say a monster lived there who kidnapped people who travelled too far in; it would take them to its secret lair and drain the victim of blood, eventually killing them. Those kind of creatures didn't exist, vampires were just myths.

I took several glances in each direction, then stepped up onto the grass, jogging among the trees. My jog sped up into a sprint and I ran deep inside the forest, not caring that it was pitch black. As I ran, I could feel tears build up in my eyes, but I didn't want to cry. No. I had cried so much recently, now I wanted to be angry. I was so angry.

I stopped running when I reached a clearing, trees circling it as if they were going to close in. Deciding it would be there where I took out my anger on nothing but the grass and trees, I picked up a small twig on the ground and threw it at one of the trees with a yell. I wished there was something else I could take out my anger on, but these were the only things around me; I didn't have much of a choice. My fists clenched as I stared at the trunk of the closest tree, the face of my mother faintly appearing there. Growling, I sent my fist towards the trunk. What a stupid idea that was. I pulled my hand back and screamed at the pain that spread through my knuckles, clutching my hand close to my stomach. It wasn't broken, I would be able to tell easily, but it was quite painful.

I began to cry yet again and this time I didn't stop myself. My forehead dropped against the tree, then I turned myself around to slump down against it. I brought my knees up close to me and sobbed quietly, starting to question whether I actually should go back home or not. My parents didn't seem to care for me and no one at school would probably even realise that I was gone. In fact, the only person who would notice would be that arsehole and he would be glad to get rid of me. After a while, I fell silent, but kept my head down and my eyes closed.

_Snap. _My head shot up and my eyes darted around, but since my eyes had been closed for a while they hadn't yet adjusted to the darkness. Inhaling deeply, I slowly pushed myself up from the ground and took another look around.

_No one is there. No one is there. _I told myself, but a crunch of the leaves told me otherwise. My breath caught in my throat and my body began to shake a little. I thought I was brave coming into this forest alone in the night, but I was foolish. I dared not to call out, in case someone or something was there. Instead I began to pace back the way I came, wanting to be out of there as quickly as I could. _Maybe it would be good to go back home, _I thought, wanting to distract myself from the fear that someone was there. I kept my head down as I walked, but I should have kept looking up where I was going as I managed to bump into something. But it wasn't a something, it was a _someone._

Swallowing, I took a couple of steps back and looked up at who was towering over me. A man, late thirties I guessed. There was a devious smirk on his face, and I could see that he was planning something bad, but that wasn't what caught my attention. It was the purple skin and red eyes upon his body.

It took a moment to sink in that this man was dangerous, so I gathered my thoughts together and seized control of my shaking body and I ran. I had no idea which direction I was running in, but I needed to get away from that man. I didn't look back because that would slow me down, I just kept running as fast as I could. My heart was beating so fast and I swore it could have jumped out of my chest when I heard a series of chuckles coming from all around me.

There was more than one voice. My legs were starting to grow tired, but I put it off and continued to run for my life. They, whoever they were, had me surrounded and my heart began to sink into my chest. My running came to a stop when I bumped into a large figure and fell back onto the ground. I saw them all; five of them, coming from each direction so I had no way to escape. It struck me that they could be some sort of tribe - they all had purple skin and red eyes - but no one had ever heard of tribes in the town before. Maybe they were the monsters in the myths, if so, I was doomed for.

They began to close in on me and I had no where left to run. My breathing was quick and heavy, and though my legs were tired I still pushed myself up from the ground.

"Get away from me!" I yelled as they stood not one foot away from me. The one who was behind me locked his arms around my stomach and lifted me off the ground so I was an equal height to them. Another man stepped in front of me (his skin was much a darker shade of purple than the other four) and smirked.

"Why should we, hmm?" He asked, cupping my chin with his dirty fingers. His nails were long, sharp and red - they could easily penetrate skin. "You're just a meal to us." He chuckled, and a selection of other laughs followed his, each as bitter as the next.

My fists clenched and I began to send my fists towards his face, but my arms weren't that long and I couldn't reach.

"I am no one's meal!" I screeched, starting to kick my legs as well. I wasn't going to die, I was only thirteen.

"Feisty one, this one is. Klaus, I think you should have this one." The man stepped back and another took his place. I stared t the man supposedly named Klaus and almost spat in his face, but I controlled myself. As he tilted his head, some of his dark hair fell onto his face. He smirked and nodded once a the creature who had a hold of me.

I dropped to the ground and immediately tried to push myself up to get away, but Klaus grabbed my hair and shoved me back down on the ground..

"Let me go!" I yelled, tears welling in my eyes as I flailed my arms around to try to hurt him.

"Shut up!" He growled roughly and sent a fist down my back, causing me to scream and the tears to start pouring out. He flipped me around and using one hand, pinned my arms above my head. This was it, I was going to die and the last thing my parents would have heard me say was that I hated them. Which, the more I thought about it, wasn't true. He traced his fingernails along my neck and stupidly enough, I tilted my head back and whimpered. I felt the pressure of one of his nails as he began to dig into my skin, but a voice stopped him.

"Wait." One of the group said, and when I opened my eyes I saw a man kneeling down beside Klaus. His skin was paler than the others, not as purple and his eyes not as red. He held a soft expression, but just two minutes ago they all looked like they were swooping in for the kill.

"What, Trevor?" Klaus scowled, releasing his grip on my neck, but he placed a hand firmly on my stomach to stop me from moving. My eyes met the other man's for just a minute, he seemed to be… Rethinking things. I didn't hear what he said next because he only whispered it onto Klaus' ear, but apparently each other man had heard it too as they began to look deep in thought.

That was my chance to escape!

As they were all considering whatever Trevor had said, I attempted to wriggle free of Klaus' grip, managing to do so before I rolled away from him. I didn't have much time to get anywhere else, though. With a sigh, he reached out and grabbed me, then lifted me up from the ground.

"You're coming with us, little lady. Feel lucky that you're still alive." He scoffed, then exhaled onto me. I pulled a face at first, but within a second I began to feel drowsy, and within five seconds I had passed out…

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**A/N: **Thank you for reading, please leave a review, favourite or follow as it helps me so much.

I decided to write a prelude to "The Vampaneze Lady" after all. I really want to be able to tell the story of Elle before Steve comes along, so I hope you all enjoy it.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Okay, so I'm starting to get very excited about writing this fanfiction. I have a lot of ideas and I'm really looking forward to getting them wrote up. Please leave reviews, favourite or follow because it really helps me out.

**Disclaimer: **I do **not **own the Saga of Darren Shan, only my own characters in this fanfiction.

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My senses slowly came back to me and the coldness of the floor beneath my body hit me before the realisation that I was somewhere unfamiliar did. My head was spinning, but I tried to ignore the dizziness as I pushed myself up from the ground. My hands slapped the wall for support and my fingers curled against it, needing to lean against the cold wall for a moment before I was pulled together. I exhaled and followed the cloud of breath as it disappeared in the darkness. It was cold and my body was covering itself in goose bumps, and instantly I knew I was in danger.

It was an effort to turn my head so I could look around at the room I was in, too afraid of what I would find. The atmosphere was too spine chilling to not be frightening. And my, was I right. I don't know how I didn't scream at the sight. Sprawled across different parts of the room where old corpses, just skull and bones so I knew they had been dead a long time. There were chains by the corpses as well, from what I assumed had kept the prisoners trapped, and I was oddly surprised that I wasn't chained up to the wall.

Across the other side of the room there was a wooden door and as I glanced frantically around, that seemed to be the only way to leave. I hurried over to the door and my hands scanned the wood for a handle, but there wasn't one. Swallowing, I began to push at it, but it wouldn't open. Even though I had been silent so far, I screamed and banged my fists against the door, wishing it to open. I even tried kicked it open; I didn't want to stay in the room for any longer. Though no matter how hard I banged on the door, it would not open and no one came to open it.

I began to feel tears build up in my eyes as I slowly came to the realisation that I wasn't going to be getting out of here anytime soon. I would be stuck in the dungeon with rotten corpses for a while until someone came to my aid. If anyone did come to my aid.

My fists stopped banging against the wooden door and I leaned against it for a few moments, sobbing quietly, then I pulled away and took steps back to the wall where I was beside before. I sank back against the wall and curled up on the floor, but my crying soon stopped and I fell silent, eventually falling to sleep.

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I awoke to the sound of the door swinging open. I sat up immediately and tried to ignore the dizziness that it brought so I could focus on those that had came into the dungeon. Before I could even push myself to stand up, one of the stronger men pulled me up and sent his fist into my stomach. The wind was knocked out of me and I almost collapsed back onto the ground, but he grabbed me by my hair and shoved me against the wall.

Two other men crowded around me and began to send their fists wherever they could all over me, beating me. As much as I wanted to fight back, I couldn't, their fists returned to my body not one second after pulling away again and their nails slashed at my skin. Just as I became limp and unable to move, they dropped me down to the ground without any care and turned away from me.

I still had enough energy to look around the room and as I stared up in the direction that the men were facing, I noticed an older man approach me. He knelt down beside me and stared down at me. Our eyes met and what I saw surprised me - hope. I had always been sceptical about people saying that you could see emotion in other people's eyes, but at that moment, I realised what it was like.

Hope was what I saw in his eyes, but I had no idea what the hope was for. Maybe he was going to kill me and he was hoping that I wouldn't scream, or that he wouldn't be caught.

The man grabbed my wrists and raised my arms above my head, motioning for another to hold my wrists down. I couldn't really feel the movement and my eyes kept flickering open and closed. I felt a gentle prick on the tips of my fingers and then… Hell.

My eyes shot open and my body almost curled up into a ball, but the other who was pinning down my wrists placed his leg onto my stomach to stop me from moving too much. Not that I could. Pain was rushing through my body and the fact that I was already weak wasn't helping me at all.

After a while, the pain slowly died down but I was still numb. I had taken quite a beating and even though the pain had stopped, I still felt quite weak. The man above me raised my hands and ran his tongue along each of my fingertips, which I would have pulled a face at if I had the energy to move any muscles.

"Sleep." The man whispered into my ear then stood up and everyone left the room. I was alone once again, only fragile… and tired.

So just like I was told, I closed my eyes to fall asleep. It wasn't hard to fall into unconsciousness, I was really weak and sleep seemed like my best friend right now.

Though I did not sleep peacefully.

My dreams were evaded by horrible scenes. Death, destruction, violence and a lot of blood. I felt very much alive and present in my dream, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't wake up. Stomach churning screeches echoed around me and my heartbeat increased. It was just a dream, but something terrible was happen, I felt like I was going to die. I screamed. The scream woke me up.

I pushed myself up so I was sitting immediately, closing my eyes tightly as my head began to spin. Breathing quickly and heavily, I opened my eyes and glanced around the room. At first I didn't notice how detailed everything looked in the dark, but when I spotted a small spider crawl along the floor, I realised how well I could see it. Frowning, I reached over to try and touch it just to see if it was actually real, but when I placed my finger down on it, I crushed it. I hadn't even tried to! I took me a couple of moments before I eventually sat back and brought my knees up close to me.

In silence I sat, curled up in the corner of the dungeon. The only noise circulating the room was my breath and my heartbeat. Every time I exhaled, my breath would form into a sort of cloud as it was so cold. I was alone, for how long I couldn't tell, but it seemed like days. I wasn't counting, and my assumptions were probably wrong, but being alone and cold for so long was starting to take its toll on me. My eyes were glued to floor and I began to slowly rock back and forth to try and keep myself warm, but it also gave me assurance that I wasn't dead. I was still moving, still breathing, but still alone.

Then the door creaked open and finally someone came in. Without even glancing up I assumed that they were going to hurt me some more, but no. When I did eventually look up, he carried a dead body - a human body. As I looked over at the corpse, I saw scratches and bruises covering the flesh. I then turned my focus to the vampaneze in front of me. He sat down beside me and left the body in the middle of the floor. Immediately I began to shuffle along to be away from him, but when I heard him sigh I stopped. I focused back on him and recognised him; he had been with the group that had tried to kill me, but he was the one who had stopped it. He was Trevor.

"You're cold." He pointed out, his voice only a whisper and a lot more gentle than it had been when I had first hear him speak, but that had only been one word. Saying nothing, I stared up at him and he stared right back at me for a few minutes until he raised an arm. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for an attack. But instead, he wrapped his arm around me and pulled him close. I tensed up, wanting to pull away but he was warm… I needed warmth.

"I'm not going to hurt you, no one else is going to hurt you. Just relax and you'll be fine." Trevor told me, though for some reason I didn't believe him. So I spoke.

"Why was I hurt? Why am I here? What did that man do to me to cause me so much pain?" I asked quietly, almost inaudible but he heard.

Sighing quietly, he began to explain what had happened, but first he started off with who they were. I felt like laughing at the things he was coming out with as they were completely barbaric. What on earth was a vampaneze? Vampires didn't even exist, never mind these… Vampaneze. But then I began to piece it all together. The night I was attacked and taken, I was going to be a meal to them. They were willing to kill a child, well I was technically a teenager, but they were still willing to kill me! Mercilessly by the way it was going to go. I was still trying to come to terms with the fact that they kill to drink blood to survive. Why would anyone want to kill, or need as he said, to survive? Sure, humans kill animals, but vampaneze kill humans. Humans!

When Trevor reached the part about what the man whose actions caused me so much pain (I was told his name was Gannen) had done to me, I froze up.

"He… Turned me into… a one of you? A vampaneze?" I raised both of my brows, then shook my head. "I can't be a vampaneze, I…"

Realisation hit me and I sank back against the wall, silencing myself for a minute. I looked over at the dead body. Suddenly, I worked out why that was there.

"You want me to drink the blood, don't you?" I asked quietly, my tone much darker than I had been before. There was no way that I was going to drink blood. _No way. _

"You'll need to, you're weak because you've been hurt and you'll be dehydrated and hungry. You probably won't be able to walk for five minutes without collapsing. The blooding will have taken a lot out of you, so you can either drink the blood and get it over with or wear out even more. Gannen wants you to drink blood before you have anything else." Trevor frowned slightly, but I only scoffed.

"What had it got to do with Gannen, eh? He's not in charge of me." I crossed my arms over my stomach, though Trevor still had an arm around my shoulders which was warming me up.

"Actually, he is, kind of. He's your mentor now, hence why he was the one to blood you." He nodded as he looked down at me. "Look, you won't be killing the person, they're already dead. I took care of that part. Drink, please. There's no going back to being human, and if you don't drink blood you're going to die. I don't think you want to do that."

I sighed and raised a hand to run back through my hair before I moved out of Trevor's arm. I had no choice, it was either drink blood or die. And I wasn't going to die. I had been spared so I could become a vampaneze. No one had told me why I was spared, but that didn't matter right now. All I needed to know for now was that I was alive, but I needed to drink blood. So that was what I proceeded to do.

I knelt down beside the body, Trevor joined me and showed me which way was best to drink the blood. He made a cut in the neck and quickly raised the body up to me. I wrapped my lips around the flesh hesitantly and the moment the blood touched my lips I almost pulled away. It was horrible, but I had to drink it. So I drank, and I drank until the body was drained. Somehow, I felt a whole lot better.

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**A/N: **Thank you for reading, please review, favourite, follow to help me out if you want to read more.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Wow, it's been a while but I finally got round to writing the next chapter. Sooooo, here you go. :D

**Disclaimer: **I do **not **own any of the Saga of Darren Shan, only the characters I have created.

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Running through the forest trying to catch up and meet the speed of my newly found friend was the new way of entertaining myself. I couldn't run as fast as him, but he never ran too fast for me. He wasn't testing me, we were just having fun and taking a break from training. The past few weeks had changed me, but it wasn't as if I didn't like this change. At first I didn't think I would, but I had come to realise that it felt good to be able to do the things I could now.

Unlike Trevor, I wasn't a full vampaneze, so I couldn't do all the things that he could. I could flit, though, but not as fast as him. I put that down to just being newly blooded and only a half vampaneze, but I continuously told him that one day I would be able to run faster than him. He told me he didn't believe me, but I knew he did. That was something about him that had brought me to really like spending my time with him; he believed in me. Unfortunately, I couldn't say that for the majority of the clan. There were only two people who seemed to have any faith in me, and that was Trevor and Gannen.

Gannen was my mentor, the man who had blooded me and turned me into a creature of the night. For the first week I hadn't really spoken to him at all, or just mumbled in reply to anything he asked me. I wasn't in the best of moods with him then, but as soon as I had accepted the fact that I might as well embrace what I could do now, I apologised to him and listened to whatever he had to say. I was his assistant, and it was my duty to do so.

The only downside to being a vampaneze was having to kill people and drink their blood to survive. That part I really _did not _like. The taste of blood was rather bittersweet, but Gannen told me that the taste wouldn't start to bother me after a few years of drinking it. I had only fed twice since being blooded. The first time being when I was in the dungeon and Trevor had killed the human. But the second time, I had to do it. Gannen had picked out the human for me and even knocked him out with his breath (which in some cases seemed like a cool thing to have, but it only applied to full vampaneze), but it was me that had to kill the man. I killed him by draining his body of blood. I hadn't exactly taken well to it, so I'd spent the next few days hiding in my room until Gannen decided to start training.

Our nights worked in a routine: Gannen would train me for a few hours, then Trevor would take me outside for a break and to have some fun, then I would go back to train with Gannen for another few hours. By the time the night was over I was always rather tired, so I ended up sleeping all through the day and the cycle would start again when I woke up. Sometimes Trevor would help out with the training, which both Gannen and I were thankful for.

Up ahead of me I saw that Trevor had stopped running, so I slowed down and jogged up to him.

"You're getting faster as the nights go by." He told me with a quiet chuckle, leaning against the nearest tree. "I expect you to catch up with me soon, but I'm not the fastest flitter in the clan." He admitted, crossing his arms over his chest.

I cocked my head to the side a bit and allowed my hands to rest on my hips. "Who is, then?" I asked, deciding that I would want to run with them to try to improve my speed even further. I wanted to be a really fast runner, and my mentor expected me to be; he had a lot of high expectations of me, it seemed.

"Klaus is." Trevor answered simply. The name immediately made my smile drop. Klaus wasn't exactly the nicest vampaneze in the clan and didn't like many people, but he really seemed to hate me. I put it down to being so young in comparison to everyone else.

"If you want to improve your speed, it would be best to work with him at some point," Trevor began to explain, holding up his hands when he saw the expression on my face, "Not straight away, though. Stick with me and Gannen for a little while longer. If you want to run with Klaus, I'll speak to him about it. But I'll be with you at all times, okay?" He offered me a charming smile, a one that no one could ever say no to.

"I'll think about it, but if you're going to be there I think it'll be alright. As long as you make sure he doesn't try to kill me." I laughed, moving to stand beside him against the tree.

"I don't think I would be able to even get there in time before you start to kick his arse."

"Not that I could actually do any damage, though."

"You're a girl, you know where to hit." Trevor smirked, pushing himself away from the trunk of the tree to start walking back in the direction that we came from.

"You shouldn't ever tell me that, or any girl for that matter because that's exactly where they will hit. No matter who it is. It just screams target." I told him honestly, skipping to join his side.

I always enjoyed taking breaks from training and spending them with Trevor out in the forest. I was supposed to be resting and making sure I had enough energy to finish off my training, but Gannen focused more on making sure I was a good fighter. I was alright with fighting, but I had never had to fight in my life until now. Not that I had experienced anything where I had to actually fight to save my life, it was just Gannen training me.

Trevor and I strolled back to the tunnels, occasionally flitting a few feet ahead of each other for fun. We arrived just in time for when Gannen wanted to continue my training, and though he was impressed to hear that I'd been working on my speed, it was clear to see that he would have rather I'd actually taken a break and let myself rest for a while.

For the next few hours, Gannen decided to move me onto using a sword, but only taught me basic moves - quick jabs, straightforward blows to the torso. After training I was pretty tired, so I told my mentor that I was going to my room and said goodbye to Trevor, who had watched and helped for the past half hour. Gannen told me to keep the sword that I had used, telling me that he didn't want anyone else getting their hands on it seeing as it was the right size for me.

I wandered slowly back to my room, having to rub my eyes to keep myself awake just to make my way back to my bedroom. As I walked through the tunnels, I almost missed a shadow hiding in a tunnel that branched off from the one I was walking through, but seeing as I thought I was imagining things, I decided to check it out.

"You want to be careful with that sword, you might poke someone's eyes out." A low voice spoke in front of me and I immediately turned my head to see who it was. Sighing, I rolled my eyes at who I saw.

"What do you want, Klaus? Waiting for someone to come along to attack them for fun?" I arched my brows, watching as the man stepped out from the shadows.

"I came to ask you how your training was coming along. Isn't it a bit too much for a girl your age?" He asked with a faint smirk, glancing down at his fingernails, trying not to appear intimidating but I still was. I think that's what he was trying to do, show that he could unnerve me even if he was just trying to have a casual conversation with me.

"I can handle it, Gannen's training me to handle it." I told him, my fingers wrapped tightly around the hilt of the sword. My heart beat had risen and my legs were finding it hard to keep me supported; something about this vampaneze frightened me. He was stronger than me, I could tell just my looking at him. Well, everyone in the clan was stronger than me because I was just a newly blooded vampaneze. And I was a target. But no one had wanted to challenge me to a duel, which I was a little glad about. Gannen had told me that vampaneze liked to challenge their new members of the clan, but no one had laid a finger on me yet.

"I bet he is." Klaus mused, scratching at the small amount of stubble on his chin. "I'm surprised they chose you, though. Out of every female on the planet, they chose a young teenager who was just starting to understand human life." He glared down at me and I took a small step back.

"W-what do you mean?" I asked, my voice shaky but I tried to hide it from him; I couldn't let him pick me out as a target. He cocked his head to the side and a smirk formed on his face.

"You mean you don't know?"

"Don't know about what? What is it?" I pressed, but kept the distance between us.

Klaus chuckled and lightly shook his head, turning to head out of the small tunnel. "You'll find out eventually, kid. It'll be best that I'm not the one to tell you." He simply said before flitting out of view.

I remained where I was for a few moments, trying to work out what he meant in my head. I didn't understand, what did he mean by they 'chose' me? Knowing that I wouldn't be able to get any sleep without knowing, I flitted back to the tunnel where Gannen and I had trained, but when I didn't find him there, I headed towards his room. I knocked on the door and waited for an answer.

"Come in." He called, so I opened the door and stepped into the room. He frowned when he saw me, "Elle, I thought you were going to bed?"

"I was, but I need to ask you something, it's important. At least, I think it is. Well, yeah, it is." I nodded quickly and toyed with my fingers while I tried to word what I wanted to say in my head.

"What is it?" Gannen asked, setting the sword he had been polishing down on top of his coffin. I think I was the only vampaneze with a makeshift bed, I couldn't stand the coffins.

Licking my lips nervously, I took a step forward and locked my gaze with his.

"Why did you blood me? Klaus said you _chose _me, what did he mean by that?" I stared at him, waiting for an answer. Gannen sighed and stepped over to me, gently dropping his hands onto my shoulders.

"It's best that you sit down while I explain this to you."

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**A/N: **Please review and favourite if you enjoyed it, it really helps me out and it's much appreciated. Thank you.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Wow, it's been a while since I last uploaded. It's an important and busy year at school for me and I've had this chapter on the go for a few months. Finally finished it, woo!

**Disclaimer: **I do **not **own The Saga of Darren Shan, but I do own the characters I have created for this fanfiction.

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I sat on the edge of Gannen's coffin, my eyes narrowing as I stared down at the ground, trying to process what he had just told me. My head slowly began to shake and I tore my gaze away from the ground and stared up at my mentor.

"But you don't know if it's me for definite?" At first my voice was quiet, but the longer I looked at him the more I couldn't resist the urge to yell, "You mean you took away my life for some damn prophecy? And you're not even sure if it is me?!" I scoffed, pushing myself up from the coffin, although it didn't really affect the height difference between the two of us.

Gannen sighed and held up his hands, slowly stepped forward to place them on my shoulders as if the act would try to calm me down. But it wouldn't, I was furious. I was angry at them for blooding me anyway, but I'd come to believe that they'd done so for my purposes; that they knew how bad my life was and they wanted me to have another shot at a (somewhat) better one. But no, they'd only blooded me for their own selfish reasons. For this… Vampaneze Lady.

"You have to understand that this prophecy is very important and if it's not fulfilled, there could be dire consequences." Gannen informed me, but I couldn't care less. Bringing my hands up to his shoulders, I pushed him away from me and turned to storm out of his room. I headed for my own, my blood boiling with fury and fear.

What would I have to do as Vampaneze Lady? What _was _the Vampaneze Lady? I certainly didn't want to rule the vampaneze if that's what it involved. I wasn't the type to lead a whole clan; I wasn't the type to lead anything! I was the type who ran away from what scared me and hid until I felt confident enough to face it.

* * *

For the next couple of nights I hid in my room, ignoring whoever came and knocked on my door. I assumed it would only be Gannen… I _hoped _it would only be Gannen because I prayed that he hadn't told anyone else about my breakdown towards the news.

On the third night that I was hiding there was a loud knock on the door, much louder than any other time over the past forty-eight hours.

I scowled. Deciding to get up and see who it was, I pushed myself up from the makeshift bed and swung open the door. My expression softened when I saw Trevor standing there. He held a bunch of flowers in his hand but extended his arm to hold them out to me.

"I heard you had a big issue with Gannen the other night, and you haven't left your room for a while so I thought I'd bring you these to cheer you up." He flashed me a smile - one of those smiles that I _had _return.

"Yeah, it was a bit of an issue," I admitted with a soft laugh, took the flowers into my own hands and stepped back to allow him into my room. If it wasn't Trevor, I probably wouldn't have invited him in but my friend had a special way to charm me. Not in a way that he could control me like a puppet, but that his presence made me jovial and I was willing to do anything to make him feel the same way. I wasn't big on having a best friend in my human life, so I supposed that was what it felt like. Trevor was my best friend. I'd never thought I would say it in my life, but I finally had a best friend.

"What happened, exactly?" He asked with a genuine concerned tone to his voice, closing the door behind him as he stepped through into my room. I set the flowers down on the foot of my bed and turned to face him, taking note of his expression. Dark circles rimmed underneath his eyes and bags showed the lack of sleep he must have had. His dark hair that was usually pristine was messy and the buttons on his shirt were matched up to the wrong holes. Three nights had passed since the argument and it only seemed logical to assume that he already knew so I excused his question as something he asked me to make me think that Gannen hadn't already spoken to him about it. But what I did not excuse was the way he looked. If Trevor had looked like this before, I probably wouldn't have made a mental note to check up on him after answering the question but he was always neat. Something was troubling him… If my thoughts were right, it was my issue that was bothering him.

"I think you know what happened," I decided to point of quietly and by the way he dropped his gaze to the ground with a faint smile growing upon his lips I learned that I was right, "So you should be the one to explain to me. You were there that night I was taken, in fact you were…" I paused, my expression hardened and I stared up into the red eyes of Trevor. "You were the one who suggested who I might be, weren't you? After all, you are the one who stopped me from being killed.."

Trevor sighed and stepped forward to me and to my surprise - I felt anger flooding in me at the thought that Trevor was the reason I was blooded against my own will - I didn't step back. He planted his hands on my shoulders and carefully sat me down on my bed before kneeling down in front of me. Slipping from my shoulders, his hands moved down to hold mine.

"I suggested it for two reasons. Number one: I could see how frightened you were and I knew Klaus wouldn't make your death clean and quick. He would have tortured you, he gets off on that sort of stuff. I knew to kill someone so young was wrong, but the other lads didn't care, they just wanted blood. I wasn't going to let you die in their hands, especially not Klaus' hands.

"Number two: I saw something in you. I could see it in your eyes, I still see it now. You're a fighter and a warrior, Elle. You have it in you to be the Vampaneze Lady. I don't even know what you're supposed to do, but I'm sure when the time comes you will know." Throughout the entire time he explained his reasons, Trevor kept a soft tone to his voice and his thumb continuously brushed the back of my hand. When I didn't reply for a while, he offered me a smile which I returned faintly.

"There was no other way to get me out of being killed? I had a family, a life…"

"A family that didn't understand you. You told me that not long ago," Trevor sighed and moved so he was sitting beside me on the bed, "But no, there was no other way of getting you out of being killed. I saw a chance and I took it even if it was risky… to the both of us."

I arched a brow, "Risky to the both of us?"

Nodding, he pulled his hands away from mine and although I was disappointed that I didn't have the comfort of his thumb against my hand anymore, I didn't say anything. "Risky to you for obvious reasons: vampaneze aren't usually blooded this young and it could have been dangerous. But if you aren't the Vampaneze Lady and they find out the main reason I saved you, I'll probably be killed. No doubt Klaus would be leading the party because I took a meal away from him." Even though we were discussing something serious that could have meant his life, he managed to slip in a joke.

We both laughed. My anger had faded away and was soon replaced by respect; Trevor had risked his life in order to stand my his morals and protect me. I have no right to be angry at a man like him.

"You weren't meant to know until you had settled in properly and we had trained you to a much higher standard than you are now." He added and I'm not surprised by what he tells me - I probably would have handled it somewhat better than I did because I would have gotten over my human life.

"You can blame Klaus for that one, then. He's the one who provoked me to ask Gannen about why I was blooded." I flashed Trevor a grin and I could see by the way his expression lightened up that he was glad I was smiling now.

For a while we sat and spoke. Trevor pulled me up to date on what had been going on with the clan in the past few nights that I had been absent from view. Apparently a group of three vampaneze had returned from a journey and had been settling into the tunnels seeing as they planned to stay down here. Of course not every single vampaneze lived down in the tunnels because they wouldn't all fit down there (Gannen had once told me that there were _way _over one thousand vampaneze in the world). As we moved onto the topic of my mentor, I realised that I owed him an apology for the way that I reacted.

Explaining where I was going to Trevor, I stood up from my bed and made my way towards the door but before I opened it I made a one-eighty turn. "Stand up, I need to fix your shirt and hair." I'd been meaning to do it for a while.

Trevor laughed and strolled over to me. "So you noticed that I was in such a state, huh? See what happens when you don't make an appearance for a few days?" I knew he was just teasing, but I wondered if there was actual truth in his words. I shook the thoughts out of my mind immediately.

Once I had sorted him out, we bid each other farewell and left my room at the same time but separated into different tunnels. I made for Gannen's quarters and knocked on the door but I received no answer. I figured that he was probably either in the food hall, the training hall or the main hall. I checked the food hall first; it wasn't often that he was in a place short of the sight of food.

I was glad to find that he was in the food hall but he was sitting with Klaus and three other vampaneze I didn't recognise. _They must be the settlers, _I thought to myself and straightened my back before sauntering over to the table as if the event three nights ago hadn't occurred. A smile was planted onto my lips which Gannen cocked his head at when he caught sight of me.

"Elle, pleasure to see you eventually," he greeted me and before he could get a word in he began to introduce me to the three vampaneze, "Elle, this is Marcus, Isaak and Adron." He pointed to each of them in order and I gave a nod of appreciation to all of them, deciding I would speak to them properly later once I had made peace with my mentor.

"Gannen, may I speak to you in private for two minutes, please?" I asked and to my satisfaction he nodded before taking me aside. He didn't say anything even when we stopped walking away from everyone and he didn't seem to be prepared to go into a speech, so I guessed that he knew why I wanted to speak to him.

"I want to apologise for the way I acted the other night. I should have let you explain properly and I was just being childish and irresponsible," I explained to him, "I'd appreciate if later on you would explain to me the roles I'll have to fill. I'm going to need my mentor by my side if I'm to become the Vampaneze Lady." I offered him a smile at the end of my explanation.

Gannen shortly returned the smile, "I accept your apology. We shall discuss the Vampaneze Lady business in a couple of hours and get back on track with training tomorrow night." He told me and before long we headed back over to the table where he had invited me to join them. I hadn't ate in three days (vampaneze could go a few days without food) and now that I caught the smell of bread and meat I realised just how hungry I was.

Deciding to ignore any snide comments made by Klaus, I devoured my food as if there was no tomorrow!

* * *

**A/N: **Thank you for reading, please review, favourite or follow it really helps me to know whether I should keep writing.


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